An Online Performance of Real-Time Research

Week 8: Into the Limelight

A viewer and I discuss if she sees her post-it somewhere on the ball. “Yes! In so many ways!”

On April 25, I presented this “Making Sense” project as an interactive poster at an on campus poster exhibit. If I must be honest, my poster stole the show. Amidst walls of tiny text and inscrutable graphs, who doesn’t love a blank poster with a touchable ball and post-its for writing?

My excitement began to build as I designed the poster and then saw the dream become reality at the printer’s. But when I put it all together and started talking with viewers–whoa! the power of dreaming outside the box became reality! Check out the gallery below for close ups.

I designed the poster to break tradition in many ways: it’s reusable, it’s mostly blank, it requires viewer input to finish it, it uses large fonts, and it invites tangible interaction. It was a smashing success. Not only did my colleagues love it, I also gathered some great data from them. I asked for their input, “What happens (to/within/around/beyond/etc) you when you make sense of something?” They jotted their thoughts on sticky notes that completed the poster. Stay tuned for next week, when I tell you what they said!